Wall Street Journal
One year ago an amazing thing happened in my life…I was featured on the front cover of the Greater New York section of the Wall Street Journal!
I was riding the subway at 8:15 am going downtown toward Wall Street. I thought it was my lucky day because I scurried into the last seat on the subway. As I was basking in my glory between two different people squishing their thighs against mine, my eyes drifted, as usual, looking at every person on the subway and taking in my surroundings. When my eyes wandered over to the guy directly across from me, I noticed he was holding a newspaper. I thought “He’s wearing a suit so of course he’s holding a newspaper!” My eyes took a quick glance across the paper he was reading and saw a familiar setting and person on the front cover. I screamed in my head “Holy shnikey!! That’s me!!!” Staring at the guy for at last 3 stops, I realized I was starting to be that creepy person on the subway gazing at people for long periods of time. He noticed. I whispered excuse me to him and pointed to the front page story he had already read, and told him that the girl in the chef uniform was me. A quick nod of congratulations and 12 more very uncomfortable stops later I made my way to work.
The rest of the day people were coming up to me, emailing me, texting me, calling me….It felt like my birthday on steroids!
My biggest worry was that I was going to be quoted wrong and my words would be understood the complete opposite of what I was trying to portray and explain. It was a wonderful Kiddush Hashem (giving G-D a good name) and that is my biggest pride! I went to a non kosher culinary school and sacrificed so much. To be quoted correctly, to inspire and to give over my beliefs to literally millions of people is one of the craziest and most rewarding feelings in the world!
When I got home, my boyfriend (now husband) had stacks of newspapers waiting for me! He had gone to each Walgreens, Starbucks, everywhere you can name to buy all of their Wall Street Journals. Each place he stopped, he would brag to the cashier while pointing to the picture that the girl in the picture was his girlfriend!
In honor of it being one year since this, what I like to call, VERY COOL DAY, I wanted to make a recipe from Culinary School! Click here for the WSJ article!
Chicken Stew with Columbian Ajiacio
Institute of Culinary Education
2 Each Chipotle, Ancho Pasilla Dried Peppers
1 Chicken, cut into 8ths
Salt, Pepper and Oil
5 Oz. Onion, diced
5 Cloves Garlic, minced
¼ c. Masa Harina (corn meal)
12 Oz. Chicken Stock
2 Poblano Peppers, seeded and julienned
1 Jalapeno Pepper, seeded and julienned
2 Idaho Potatoes, large dice
1 Avocado, sliced
Preheat oven to 350. Seed the dried peppers and toast them in oven for about 10 min. Once toasted, soak the dried peppers in water, drain, puree, set aside. Sauté chicken in a pan with high sides. Once the chicken is browned, remove and put to the side on a separate plate. Saute onions till translucent, then add the garlic, poblanos and jalapeno. Add dried pepper puree, salt and pepper. Add the Masa Harina and a little stock. Put chicken back in and add the rest of the stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer, no lid. Add potatoes and braise in oven for 40 minutes. Serve with avocado.
